“I’ve been very pleased with the progress that we’ve made in our call center over the last six or seven months, since we really re-engineered the way things were being done there,” Rawlings told me in a phone interview. “But, obviously, we’ve got a lot of work to do yet.”

“But that’s not an excuse,” Rawlings said. “We’ve got to make sure that we have real clarity going on between communicator and the person receiving the calls.”

Rawlings also acknowledged that the trouble patrol officers had responding quickly to multiple serious calls around the same time that night suggests there could be a staffing problem out on the streets.

“Obviously, it was an issue in that regards,” the mayor said. “And I have been assured that we are monitoring that, the amount of staffing in each part of town during the shifts now, on a monthly basis.”

He said police officials will be able to identify if more officers are needed in certain parts of the city and at certain times. If so, he said, “we need to dial that up.”

As for what Rawlings would say to Cho, who has not received any apologies from city or police officials, the mayor said, “I appreciate his courage and his effort to do the right things.”

“Sounds like to me he did the right thing in calling 911 and how he did it,” Rawlings said. “I send out my best wishes to him, I’ll tell ya that. He went through a tough night.”

A 911 call taker did not realize a West Dallas store manager had just been in a shootout with robbers Sunday night because he had a heavy accent and was speaking fast during his call for help, police officials said in a written statement this afternoon.

Joe Cho can be heard breathlessly saying the word “shot” repeatedly on the call, a recording of which was also released today. He frantically begs for officers to come quickly.

“Can you send somebody quick,” Cho said. “Hurry up, please.”

The Dallas police statement said, “The caller had a very heavy accent and was speaking very quickly. The call taker had a very difficult time understanding the information and did not hear the caller say ‘shot’ or ‘shoot.’ Therefore, the call was listed as a Robbery and forwarded to the police dispatcher at 11:02 p.m.”

Robberies that have already occurred are categorized as “Priority 2″ calls. The stated Dallas police goal for responding to such calls is 12 minutes or less.

But at the time of the call, officers were were already working calls for an active shooter, a major accident, a burglary and another shooting, police said.

Police said about 11:14, officers responded to a shooting call less than two miles away from the store and found a man who had been shot in his abdomen and left leg. The man, Jamarcus Dalevon Johnson, 21, would not say how he was shot, police documents said.

Those officers also found various articles of clothing that Johnson appeared to be trying to hide, the documents said. Officers also found bloody clothing dumped nearby.

At 12:14 a.m., officers finally responded to the 11 p.m. robbery call at Pepe’s Grocery & Deli, according to Dallas police records. Some time after that — Cho said it was after 1 a.m. — the officers called Cho at home and asked him to come back to the store.

Cho, who is originally from Korea, moved to the area 30 years ago.

The complete Dallas Police Department statement is included after the jump: